Josh Keown | Night Terror Novels 🧛🏻♂️’s review published on Letterboxd:
No dialogue.
- N/A (N/A)
Found on YouTube here.
The Haunted Castle has unfortunately got a bit of a muddled history. This version is titled in its native French, ‘Le château hanté’, and prior to this Georges Méliès made ‘Le manoir du diable’, which in a turn of ridiculous naming was also given the title The Haunted Castle in English.
To make matters worse, George Albert Smith actually REMADE Méliès' '86 The Haunted Castle less than a year after, and gave it - you guessed it - the same title.
However, despite all that drama THIS The Haunted Castle is one of Méliès better outings; it is certainly a lot of fun in spite of its 'blink and you'll miss it' run time. Then again, like the similarly short The Infernal Cauldron, it must have taken an age to paint every frame of the film, but it was definitely worth it.
VERDICT; With genuinely funny moments, fabulous tricks from the party bag of Méliès' the movie magician, and driven by his unbeatably ambitious vision, this proto horror-comedy is years and years ahead of its time - but then again Georges always was.
3.5/5 or 7/10